Elvis Made Up a ‘Bulls***’ Story About the Origins of 1 Song
During concerts, Elvis Presley enjoyed talking to his audience between songs. Sometimes, he told jokes, talked about his personal life, or did karate demonstrations. Other times, he simply discussed the song he was about to sing. When Elvis introduced the song “Softly, as I Leave You,” he spoke to the audience about its tragic origins. This entire story was reportedly pulled from his imagination.
Elvis told his audience a lengthy origin story about 1 song
According to members of Elvis’ entourage, the singer loved hearing a good story. When he did, he would fixate on it and build upon it in his mind. They said a good example of this was the way he discussed the song “Softly, as I Leave You.”
“Now, one night backstage, some guy who was feeding Elvis a line said, ‘Do you know the story behind that song?’ and Elvis pricked up his ears and said, ‘No, I thought it was a love story,’” his bodyguard Red West recalled in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Anyway, this guy tells him it wasn’t a love story. The lyrics, this guy says, were written by a dying man.”
This bit of information fascinated Elvis, and he expanded upon it in concerts.
“So he has made up this incredible story. We heard him tell it on stage so many times we started to get to where we believed it,” West said. “He would get up there and tell them: ‘Now this is a story about a man who is dying. He was in the hospital and his wife was there with him. She sat with him for three days and three nights. On the third day, she lay down beside him and went to sleep. Just then this man felt himself dying. He didn’t want her to see him pass away, so he reached for a pad and a pencil and he wrote these words: “Softly.”’ Then he would sing the song.”
The songwriter said Elvis made up the backstory of the song
Hal Sharper wrote the song “Softly, as I Leave You.” The fact that he was alive and well while Elvis told this story — and would continue to be for decades after Elvis’ death — pokes holes in the tale. West claimed he actually met Sharper though. He disputed Elvis’ tragic story.
“Well, I guess the audience ate it up,” West said. “Anyway, I spoke to a guy who knew the writer of the song and told him this story, and the guy looks at me and says, ‘Oh, bulls***, it’s a love story.’ But Elvis to this day will tell that story on stage. His imagination is great.”
His bodyguards said the singer’s mind moved rapidly while he told stories
Though Elvis may not have always told the whole truth, he loved to command an audience. According to the members of his entourage, it always seemed that Elvis’ mind was moving so fast that the tale he was spinning would get away from him.
“He doesn’t realize he is saying these things,” bodyguard Sonny West said. “His mind is always running very fast, and it jumps ahead of his talk, and sometimes he doesn’t know what he is saying and he says the first thing that comes into his mind.”
While his entourage always took Elvis seriously as he spoke, they would often meet up afterward to laugh about the outrageous things he said.
